The UK studio group, Pinewood Shepperton is putting the finishing touches to a multimillion-pound investment in upgraded and new facilities targeted at increasing broadcast demand for large live event TV. “The trend for broadcasters to connect with their subscribers or viewers and to facilitate very large [studio] audiences of 1,000+ means many productions have simply outgrown the space of traditional TV studio facilities,” said the group’s Head of TV Studio Operations, Simon Honey. “There is a growing requirement for our large stages at 15,000 square feet+ [more than about 1,400 square metres], together with ancillary facilities and locations for ‘behind the scenes’ filming.” The photograph is of the new 30,000sqft/2,790sqm Richard Attenborough Stage. The all-HD and fibre networked facility opens officially in September based on Harris infrastructure with an eight-channel DVS Venice server system, connected to two DVS SpycerBox storage servers in a new Digital Content Services department. “This enables our clients to record directly to post production providing a seamless delivery from studio recording to editing,” he explained. Client demand to engage audiences via social media platforms means facilities for second screen activity have also been thought through. “This means we not only provide traditional HD lines for broadcast transmission, but are able to provide secure, fast IT connectivity to enable clients to ‘engage’ powerfully with second screen viewers,” said Honey. “We have to have the ability to be able to accept any form of media thrown at us, whether file-based or tape and ingest and reproduce the correct format to fit the studio floor.” Flexibility in lighting design is also part of the offer. “For us, initially this means greater development and investment in cabling networks via fibre, ethercon and CAT6a plus additional hard power connectivity in our lighting grids and studio floor, rather than conventional DMX and XLR. We have to make it easy for clients to simply ‘plug in and play’,” he added. www.pinewoodgroup.com By Adrian Pennington
